American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

2000 children in the worst impacted villages of the Galle district will receive school kits under the sponsorship of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Inc (JDC). The kits consist of a school bag, uniform material, shoes, socks, exercise books, stationary and a personal hygiene pack. This offer has been made possible through a generous donation of US $50,000.

Since 1914 the JDC, a non-partisan and apolitical organization has served as the overseas arm of the American Jewish community. In times of crisis – natural disasters, war and famine – JDC offers aid to fulfill the Jewish tenet of the moral responsibility to repair the world and alleviate suffering wherever it exists. They seek to empower local communities by creating model programmes and training local leadership to run the programmes. In the process, they build coalitions with strategic partners who will ultimately assume responsibility for the programmes.

The JDC Regional Director, Ms Judy Amit who is in Sri Lanka to participate in the distribution of school kits said

I was greatly impressed by the community level interactions of Sarvodaya and had no hesitation in choosing them to be JDC’s implementing partner. Having visited Galle and seen the needs of children to urgently return to school, JDC decided to make this their first project in Sri Lanka.